The New Invisible Man’s Updated Premise Is Horrifyingly Grounded

The New Invisible Man’s Updated Premise Is Horrifyingly Grounded

When Universal said it was going to reimagine its iconic monsters, it wasn’t kidding. The first plot details have been revealed for the upcoming Invisible Man film and it is not what you are expecting. At all.

Entertainment Weekly reports that the film, which stars Elizabeth Moss and Oliver Jackson-Cohen, is about domestic abuse. Moss plays Cecilia, a woman in an abusive relationship with a scientist, played by Jackson-Cohen.

One night, Cecilia runs away, only to later hear the scientist has died by suicide and left her his money. That was odd enough but Cecilia soon has a feeling he’s not actually gone when scary, horrific stuff begins to happen to her and her friends. (Spoiler: He’s not dead, he’s just… dun dun dunnnn… invisible.)

The idea of an abusive ex stalking you, seemingly from beyond the grave, adds a whole other level of terror to the idea of The Invisible Man. And that’s exactly what writer-director Leigh Whannell wanted.

“The image of the Invisible Man in the floating trench coat and the floating sunglasses is one that is clearly etched into the public consciousness,” Whannell told EW. “I wanted to kind of get away from that and make something that was really modern, really grounded, or as grounded as you can be when you’re dealing with a film called The Invisible Man. Just something that was really tense and scary in a way The Invisible Man hasn’t been before.”

EW also has the first three images from the film. Head there to see the other two, but here’s one:

Creepy.

And though the film is called The Invisible Man, Whannell stressed that Elisabeth Moss’ character is the focus. “The script is really a one-woman show,” he said. “Elisabeth Moss is the centrepiece of the film, and she’s in pretty much every scene. I feel like, if you’re going to hang an entire film on someone’s shoulders, you need an actor as good as Lizzie.”

With these images now out there, and the film coming out relatively soon, you’d imagine a trailer will be here before you know it. The film opens on February 28 in the U.S. An Australian release date is yet to be confirmed.